tales from Korea

As you may have already read, a typhoon came right though Korea last week, on the 2nd of September – Typhoon Kompasu.

I had heard a typhoon was coming, but nobody around me seemed to take it too seriously and I pretty much forgot about it until early that morning. I woke up at about 5:30am and heard these really strange noises, something felt off and I went downstairs to check it out. I pushed the blinds back and my jaw dropped… trees almost being uprooted, whipping rain and debris flying through the air. I turned on the video camera and recorded some of what was going on outside (Although it was too windy to keep the window open for long) and I recorded some images from the news. Schools ended up getting delayed for two hours, which meant a nice sleep in for me! It was pretty exciting to witness, but very sad to hear about the loss of life and destruction the typhoon caused.

Check out the video:

Wow, I’ve been away from here for a while, it feels strange not to have posted in so long. Even though I never felt like I ‘needed to post’ just because I hadn’t done so in a while this has been quite a gap. Things have been busy, but very good.

I’m back in Korea after a short but eventful trip back to Ireland in which Jayeon and I had our marriage party with friends and family. We also managed to travel around Ireland quite a bit and ended up visiting visiting Blarney, Cork city, Kinsale harbour, Galway, Inis Mor and a few other places. But well I’m back in Korea and the teaching continues; my new contract has begun and will finish in August 2011.

I feel now that I’ve settled in quite a bit and have such a firm routine with school and activities outside of school, things that would have previously surprised, shocked and confused me don’t quite have the same effect they did when I first landed in Korea. I guess what I’m trying to say is, that ‘new place’ feeling of wonder and astonishment has firmly worn off, and I’m just living the routine. Of course, that’s a natural progression and I don’t think that’s going to necessarily impend my ability to continue blogging about things in Korea. Like many blogs that ramble like an online diary of someone’s life, I guess I feel a sense of reticence to blog about myself too much.

So, the story will continue, for another year at least. Let’s hope not too many month long gaps appear along the way.

Moving into our own place, Jayeon and I, it’s just fantastic.

We were a little lucky with what we got, an officetel in fantastic condition with a good location and view.

Check out this video I recorded with my iPhone; there are no titles, cuts or transitions… too lazy!

It’s a new beginning for me, again. I’ve been in Korea now for about eleven months, the time has gone by very quickly yet at the same time it feels like I’ve been here for a while. I do think I have quite a good ability to adjust to how I live and even though Jayeon helped eased the transition, I’ve settled into Korean society quite well. I’ve really learned a lot about the Korean psyche and this learning process was speeded up through my wholly unique living situation. As you may know already from previous posts, I moved into Jayeon’s family home from day one when I landed in Korea last August, and we just moved out of her home about two weeks before into our own apartment. For a westerner to move into a Korean family home and live an extended sojourn there is to say the least, extremely uncommon. But the fact they her family had never met me before and even more importantly that Jayeon and I were not married at the time, seems almost like me living there would be impossible. I never fully realised the profoundness of this situation until I came over here and started living in it for myself. Trying to explain it to other westerners had them confused and asking questions, but explaining to Koreans had they absolutely perplexed.

In retrospect, a decision I made rather lightly (and with a great deal of naiveté) could have gone horribly wrong, and I think we were all lucky that didn’t happen. I lived with Jayeon, her mom, her grandmother, her brother and her young cousin. From the moment I stepped in the door, they had accepted everything about me. Their unemphatic welcomes had me a little worried at the beginning (In contrast to Irish welcomes), but I soon realised that it’s part Korean style and part that their acceptance of me meant there was not need for that kind of greeting. One main reason for moving in there was getting the chance to know them; Jayeon knew my family well by this time but I had never met hers even once in our three year relationship. And I really did get to know them, I got to understand a lot about Korean behaviour, idiosyncrasies and their overly practical often down-to-earth attitude. Her family are incredibly easy going people, a contributing reason for my moving in and we had a lot of good times over the eleven months we lived together. The language barrier presented problems, especially between Jayeon’s grandmother (Who can’t speak a word of English but can speak Japanese) and her mom (Whose English is basic). But I was fortunate enough to have three fluent English speakers with me: Jayeon, her brother and her cousin. Jayeon’s mom did make a huge effort to learn English and bought books and persistently and when necessary used her limited ability really well. I picked up a bit of Korean from overhearing conversations and together in a mixture of Korean and English, we got by. Her young cousin of just fourteen years old can speak English really well. I guess the 3 nights a week of attending English institutes after school is paying off.

A little sad to move out, but it’s great that we can finally have our own space. They miss us too.

Our new apartment is only about 100 meters away from her mom’s house. We can even wave and see each other! It’s great, if I’m hungry I can go over any time I want and eat her mom’s delicious food. But more than that, I had a wonderful experience and I’m glad I took that one opportunity for me to really get to know her family, who are now my family too. Without doing that, a trip to the ‘inlaws’ may have been the awkward experience a lot of other people dread.

I’ll never forget that one great year, thank you. 나는 올해는 절대 잊지 못할거야. 감사합니다.

I’m happy and excited that I’ll be having a photography exhibition this month! It’s called “Days in India” and will display 9 prints at the Guillaume Cafe in Seoul. Please check below for details on the exhibition and how to get there.

Exhibition details

The exhibition will be held at the Guillaume Cafe from the 9th of July until the 30th of July.

The opening night is the 9th of July and will run from about 7pm to 10pm.

Wine, food and other drinks will be available, free of charge!

If you’re interested in photography, India, or joining the Flickr in Seoul group I suggest you come along to the opening, meet some people and enjoy yourself.

To get there

• Address: Gangnam-gu, Cheongdam-dong 88-37, Insung Bldg #101, Seoul 135-954, Korea
• Phone: +82 2 512 6701
• Email: contact@maisonguillaume.com

The closest subway station is Gangnam-Gu station on line number 7.
You can take bus #472 heading north from Gangnam-Gu station.
Look for the large Smoothie King and Burger King, go up the hill and it’s on your left.

The flyer

Many thanks to my sponsors Guillaume, 708 Art and my friends David, Youngdoo, Hyunyo and Mel for their support and advice during this period.

This post has been removed due to its content causing offence.

I apologise for any inconvenience caused.

대한민극 (dae, han-min-gook) is the full name for the Republic of Korea.

War was on the brink, but I guess the world cup came along and quelled everyone’s killing mood, at least until after the tournament. Amazing that, North Korea and the South are both playing in the world cup, at least they’re not in the same group but can you imagine them playing against each other? Whatever the score, I would pack my bags and get ready to leave because one side could be angry enough to do something. Not really though, North Korea will probably get knocked out of the tournament in the first round.

South Korean fans are unbelievably passionate about their team in the world cup. Well actually, Koreans go mental for any sport if a Korean is taking part in it, earlier this year it was Kim Yuna and her ice skating performances (which were excellent, by the way) but now it’s the World Cup. Part of the Korean thing to do is first pick up a red shirt that displays a slogan like “Korea, fighting!” or “We can do it!” or “Go Reds!” or something like that and then go to a public place where they set up these huge TVs to watch the game live on. I unfortunately missed the first game where they played Greece, and I wished I went because as you probably know, Korea won and the atmosphere was suppose to be electrifying. The next game, played just yesterday was a different story. Picking up on the Korean mood, I got the impression most Koreans didn’t really care who their team was playing, once they beat them. Trying to have a conversation about their opponents brought only dismissals and the kind of remarks like “It doesn’t matter, once we win!” but I knew it would be a much tougher game then the first, it’s Argentina for feck sake! I was hoping for a possible draw at the very least, but the 4-1 loss was pretty shocking. I won’t turn this into too much of a football analysis rant, but I will say I thought the Korean side seemed stunned at the level of their opponents, the difference between them and Greece is just huge. During the match I kept noticing that whenever a Korean player got the ball and an Argentinian charged towards him (As they tend to do), the Korean player seemed to panic a little and pass the ball without much care, which led to a lot of repossession by the Argentinians. I just hope that match shakes things up for the Korean team and the fans a bit, that seriously strong sides are out there and they need to play as aggressively as possible and take the chances the Argentinians did (Such as attempting breaks through defence against the odds). So many times, one Argentinian controlled the ball from a tight spot and skipped around 3 or even 4 South Korean players before getting it into striking distance.

So the previous Greek game that caused citywide screams that could easily be heard from almost anywhere were absent, and a kind of dull mediocrity dominated most peoples moods the next day. It seems funny to me, you can see the older Ajooma’s who have no interest in football, looking a little confused as to the strange mood on the packed subway in the morning. Usually on a Friday, everyone looks tired but happy. South Korea’s next game is on Wednesday the 23rd and I’ll definitely be trying to join the atmosphere in a public viewing location in Seoul, I have to experience this buzz before it’s all over.

When deciding on coming to Korea a few people asked me some very serious questions about the issue of NOKO: What’s the danger? Will anything happen? Will you be safe? I never really took these questions too seriously and when I relayed them to Jayeon she laughed and shrugged them off. Most South Koreans are not even worried in the slightest about NOKO; being here I can understand a little more why, but I don’t exactly share their… can I say, slightly naive passiveness when it comes to their insane northern neighbour. The New York Times wrote an article called South Korea’s Collective Shrug, it’s well worth a read.

In the last few weeks tensions between the North and South have risen to the highest level in about 10 years. So how did all this happen? Well, it’s a long and complicated story, but it starts off with something I’m sure you’ve read about in the news already, since it’s grabbed headlines all over the world: A South Korean navy ship, the Cheonan, was blown in half and sunk quickly killing 46 sailors. A pretty shocking and sad story of course. When I first heard the story I thought right away that it must have been a torpedo attack. It took place in the disputed navel zone which NOKO doesn’t recognise as being South Korean waters. Also, there have been a few navel skirmishes over the past number of years around the same place, with NOKO generally coming out worse. Korean pride is not something to be taken lightly, I’m sure the NOKO’s haven’t forgotten about them. Also, torpedo’s are really designed to destroy a ship quickly by blowing it in half (Or making ahuge hole in it). When the investigation was going on I was a little afraid that the investigation team wouldn’t directly implicate NOKO because of the possible ramifications. And yes, there could be ramifications, why? Because NOKO is insane, literally. Before we go any further check out this brilliant 14 part short mini series called The Vice Guide to North Korea. It’ll give you a nice idea about the most secret, controlling, militarised, crazy state in the world. The fact that this place exists to this day is just remarkable.

So South Korea caused a ruckus and directly blamed NOKO, which they deny, of course. The South initiated sanctions against the North and they responded the same way; they tore up pacts on both sides and now consider each other ‘true enemies’. Not that they were that far from that anyway, but it’s a bit more official now. In a way this is probably a good thing for the South, their military posture was a bit too relaxed before and when you have a million NOKO soldiers just over the border, you’d really want to be ready.

So a war would of course would totally suck. What could I do? Well, here’s what I know so far:

I live in Bundang, just south of Seoul, and probably just out of the NOKO’s artillery range. But they could easily launch some SCUDS and other weapons this far. If NOKO launched a surprise attack, I doubt the Korean army could hold them back and they’d probably advance very quickly. The evacuation plan would be simple, head south as quick as possible, but with everyone else doing the same thing it wouldn’t be easy. The Irish embassy has my contact details and there are only about 400 Irish in South Korea, making evacuation a little easier for us. But who knows how a real war scenario would pan out. This kind of modern open war nowadays is almost unimaginable… and who would win anyway? Well the general consensus is that nobody really would. While browsing a forum on this topic, a poster put it perfectly:

North Korea loses the war, in the sense of being military defeated and taken over.

China loses the war, in the sense of suffering a massive influx of North Korean refugees across the Yalu, and having to care for the poor fellows.

South Korea loses the war, in the sense of absorbing a devastatingly destructive artillery barrage of Seoul, then inheriting a devastated fifth-world country, complete with a Kim-Il-Sung-worshipping insurgency fighting from the hills.

The DPRK is like a crazy man with a gun to his own head, screaming “Give me what I want, or I’ll splatter you with my own brains!” Nobody wants to get covered in brains, so they give the madman what he wants. It’s a very precarious situation.

It’s a pecarious situation indeed, with a number of possible outcomes. Again, the NY times writes an excellent article called Five Possible Ways to War.

So, a job as an English teacher or a career change towards a war photojournalist? I guess we’ll see how things pan out over the next year or so.

I made this video a while back but never uploaded it for some reason! It gives you a general idea about what my school looks like and how the students behave. In general, Korea students aren’t that much better behaved then western students; the same things that go on in schools in Ireland go on here too. You can see some of my teachers too, they’re really great, I get on with them so well and they like me a lot too.

The one major thing that’s changed since this video is my desk, it’s no longer here as I was moved to a smaller office across the hall. My new office is much quieter and I’ve a great desk ‘position’, it is a little more boring in there, though.

I know I haven’t been updating much the last while, but I don’t really like writing general updates and short banters, that’s what facebook is for. Also, not that much has been happening recently. But last week, I finally got away from working for a while and got to see and photograph the Buddhist lantern festival, held near Buddha’s birthday on May the 21st. The Buddhists’ are a quiet and humble bunch, really, and you don’t hear from them much during the year normally. Most of the year is spent fighting back crazy Christians who hassle people everyday and make sure no one forgets about their religion, the Buddhists’ just seem to meditate and hide away until this day comes around.

Money and religion can be a bit of a dodgy thing, the Christians here don’t make bones about it — it’s very frank that they pay to join a church and ‘donate’ about 10% of their pay every month to their respecting churches. I wasn’t too sure about the Buddhist temples, but many of them are ancient heritage sites so the government probably supports them to some degree. I learned one new thing about the temples and money around the time of the festival, though. Putting up a message/wish into an overhanging lantern in a temple is actually a significant ‘investment’, I heard prices in the couple of hundred dollars. Then there are the lanterns inside the temple buildings which only hold messages for the deceased relatives. These messages can run into the thousands of dollars. At one temple in the middle of Seoul we saw a sign hung outside saying “Be honest! Don’t lie about the money” or something like that (The Korean translation was weird), the message from another temple warning them not to forget about their Buddhist ideals and accepting money for their own personal gain. Whatever is going on, it’s pretty simple for me — Buddhists go about their own business and don’t bother anyone while many Christians make annoying people an incredibly popular pastime.

I went to the festival with the Flickr in Seoul photo group but we got a rubbish spot in which to shoot; missing many of the better parts of the parade. The parade itself, was also moving rather quickly made getting shots pretty difficult. I shot almost 300 frames of the people passing and the beautiful lanterns, and got less them 10 keepers. Afterwards, though, I kept shooting scenes around the parade and got some good results.

Check out some images I shot from a temple in Seoul and from the parade: